Jashn-e-azadi – How We Celebrate Freedom, a documentary by Sanjay Kak exploring the struggle for Azadi, freedom, and the conflict in the Kashmir valley. In 2007, as India celebrates the 60th anniversary of it’s Independence, this provocative and disturbing film raises questions about freedom in Kashmir, and about the degrees of freedom in India.

“Jashn” in New York

In a week from now Jashn-e-Azadi will screen in New York at the MIACC 09 – Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival – which describes itself as “New York’s Indian Film Festival”. The film will be screened as part of IN FRAME: KASHMIR a Sidebar Program of MIACC 09, organised in collaboration with Alwan for the Arts & 3rd i NY Monthly Collaborative Screening of Arab & South Asian Cinema.

“From fictional narratives to documentary, from feature films for the big screen to multi-media and short films on the web, the complexities of Kashmir as investigated and interpreted by filmmakers in India and in the US. MIAAC09 presents a special focus on Kashmir.

In addition to the screenings below, IN FRAME: KASHMIR will include the screening of Santosh Sivan’s Tahaan, Onir’s short film Omar, and a video installation at Aicon Gallery of MTV Iggy’s short films from their Change: Kashmir media initiative, and Parthiv Shah’s single-channel work, Barbed Wires and Beautiful Skies. A special panel discussion, Kashmir on Film, will take place at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Sanjay Kak will also be part of a panel discussion Kashmir on Film at NYU Tisch School, in the MIAAC@NYU series ‘Discussions on the Art, Culture and Politics of Indian Cinema’.

November also has other campus screenings of Jashn-e-Azadi in the US: at Bryn Mawr College on Nov 10, and at The Center for Place, Culture and Politics, CUNY Graduate Center on Nov 16.

Considering the film has been around for a while, this has been an unexpectedly busy time for screening events: in New Delhi, we had screening/discussions at Jawaharlal Nehru University (School of Social Sciences) and at the Delhi School of Economics (Dept of Sociology). Last month there was a discussion around the film at the Kamala Nehru College, Delhi University, and a screening at the Film & Television Institute of India, Pune, part of the Persistence Resistencefestival organised by Magic Lantern Foundation.

And on Dec 6, there will be a screening at Patna, as part of the cultural festival organised by Jan Sanskriti Manch… plenty.

More than two years in the making, Jashn-e-azadi [How We Celebrate Freedom], is a feature length documentary by film-maker Sanjay Kak which explores the implications of the struggle for Azadi, for freedom, in the Kashmir valley.